The present invention relates generally to a method and devices for the detection of target objects such as landmines. More particularly, the present invention includes several devices used to carry out a method of training live animals, such as rats and birds, to seek out and destroy target objects such as active landmines in the field, or to localize, unearth, and mark the location of active mines, thereby reducing the danger of their later removal by valuable sniffing mine clearing animals, technology, and mine clearing personnel, making a landmine clearance effort more effective and efficient.
In many areas around the world, thousands of landmines which have not been removed from areas of previous or ongoing armed conflicts remain active and intact. Their presence poses a grave and constant threat to human inhabitants, particularly children. The loss of lives and livelihood as a consequence of these exploding landmines is unacceptably high, and the cost to meticulously clear these areas using conventional approaches is prohibitive. To make matters worse, the hilly and irregular terrain where many of these landmines are located makes the use of conventional bulldozers and other general methods used in their removal impractical and difficult.
Current methods of clearing or deactivating landmines can be generally divided into four categories. First, there is human-directed field detection, mostly employed in poor developing nations, whether by sophisticated hand held devices or through the use of highly dangerous methods of attempting to deactivate the landmines directly. Second, bomb or land mine-sniffing dogs may be trained to locate and trace vapors or odors of the landmine explosive materials which teak over time. Third, high-tech equipment and computers analyze collected air samples to detect explosive materials in the atmosphere, as well as sophisticated and expensive mapping methods; and, fourth, heavy, military motorized equipment or vehicles may be used. Unfortunately, with the exception of the most primitive methods of detecting landmines, which offer the greatest risk of loss in human life, all of these methods are extremely costly. Cost has been the overwhelming limiting factor to widespread efforts to clear active landmine fields in the world.
For instance, whereas dogs have proven to be highly effective detection agents, each dog can cost over $50,000 to train, and to continue to be effective in the face of changing mine modalities, each dog requires regular skills maintenance and additional training. Furthermore, other factors besides their high cost are equally discouraging. These include the following: (1) trained dogs are occasionally casualties themselves because over time a significant percentage of these animals die as casualties in the field; (2) the long-term use of trained dogs is not possible because although dogs can be well-trained based only on praise and affection from their human trainers and masters, these “reenforcers” prove to wane in strength over time, resulting in the inevitable increase in the level of risk to the training personnel; (3) the use of trained dogs depends heavily on the presence and interaction with a trained human de-miner which still imposes a great element of risk to human life; (4) the training is “task” specific because dogs only learn how to locate landmines, and once they have located them, training dogs to avoid detonating a landmine is extremely difficult, leading to frequent inadvertent detonation of mines by activation of booby-trap mechanisms; (5) as dogs are limited to only localizing mines, the two problems of unearthing and disposing of the localized mines remain; and (6) dogs only provide guidance and information as to the location of a landmine in a relatively large general area, ineffective for safe pin-point detection of landmines for human clearers.
High-tech or heavy equipment vehicles all are prohibitively expensive and hence unrealistic for most developing nations where the greatest number of active landmine fields are found.
Another problem with the methods and devices described above is poor accessibility to the active landmine field areas.
Transporting mine-clearing specialists, dogs, high-tech and heavy equipment to remote areas, frequently characterized by irregular, rocky, inhospitable terrain, is a great obstacle in clearance efforts.
Most importantly, current methods and devices pose an extremely dangerous risk to landmine clearance personnel. The best of trained personnel, even with extensive education and sound judgment, are constantly subject to great risk because of the possibilities of error and missed detection. Even with the aid of a highly trained dog having extensive experience, human life is seriously at risk. Therefore, methods and devices used in clearing and disarming active landmines must maximize the protection of trained human specialists.
In order to address these safety concerns and be successful in effecting a substantially complete disablement of active landmines, an approach to the global landmine problem must satisfy a number of critical and essential factors. Such factors include: landmine design constraints; accessibility over difficult terrain and remote topography of landmines; detection difficulties due to low to zero metal content, small size, and camouflage properties; novel “booby trap” mechanisms; economically feasible disposal methods; dangers from ongoing regional conflicts imposed on human mine clearing personnel.